Amalgamator



S. G. MUSSER.

AMALGAMATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 19, 1911. RENEWED OCT. 1, 1949.

1,342,567. Patented June 8, 1920.

2 SHEETS-:SHEET l.

S. G. MUSSE'R.

AMALGAMATOR. I APPLICATION FILED JULY 19, I917- RENEWED OCT-1.1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1,342,567. Patented June 8, 1920.

Jame/cl a Nusser} 1 UNITED s'r AMALGAMATOR.

specification of Letters Patent. {Patented 111198, 1920;

Applicationfiled my, 19.1917, Serial No. 181,475. Renewed October 1,1919. SeriaI No. 327,834.. 1

To all whom it may concern: I

'Be it known that I; SAMUEL Gr. Mossnn-,,a

citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in thecounty*of"Los Angeles and Stateof California, have invented anew anduseful Amalgamator, of which the following is a specification.

.This invention relates to amalgamators of the centrifugal type, forseparating and amalgamating gold or other metals from line ca w Fig. l.I

Fig. kis a fragmentary sectional V 16W taken on line w*-m*, Fig. 1. 7

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates .a base member supporting anupright, preferably circular, housing 2 secured; to the base 1 bybolts8. A vertical shaft is mounted centrally within the housing 2. and isjournaled at its lower end within a bearingo' carried upon the base 1. Apulley 6 is fixed to the shaft 1 andv provides for the rotation thereoffrom a suitable source of power not' shown. V Carried centrally. ofthehousing is a tubular member 7 through which the shaft 1 extends.Thismemberi is flared outwardly-as,

at 8, at its lower end ,.t-he outwardly flared portion being formed.integral as at 9 with the inner face; of thehousing. 2 at a point belowthe upper end'of thehousing. There isprovided a; bearing 10 fortheshaftatthe upper end of the tubular-member 7.,

Amalgamating means in the form ofan annular chamber or shell generallydesignated 11 is supported upon the'- upper end of androtated bythe-shaft' 4..

An annular pan 12.. is secured-.by'fastening means13 to an annular.fiange-lkformedon:

the upper end 'ofthe housing- 2. This pan v surrounds the aimalgam'atingmeans orrcham-v ber l1; Secured by bolts 14'-- to thenpper edge of thepan is'a ring 15 supporting an arch16 which carries a boss 17 in which.is; i mounted. an intake pipe 18., This pipe. 18 is" not shown, andextends downwardly through i I the boss, terminating in anenlarged lowerend port1on20, which is connected and com-' municated with the chamberor amalgamat ing means'll. It will be seen that-theb ase 1 housing 2,pan 12 and arch 16, together with their cooperative elements, may beremoved relative toaone another and that the assembling or'disassemblingofthis structuremay be easily facilitated.

The amalgamating chamber 11 is formed I in two parts, generallydesignated 21 and I 22, the part 22 being in the form of-an annularupwardly opening cup provided at its,

upper end andcentrally with an enlarged portion or boss 23 which iskeyed or other? wise fixed to the upper end of the shaft 1.. Thisannular cup 22 extends downwardly between the inner wall 24 ofthe pan 12and the tubularmember 7 into the housing 2. and] is adapted to rotatewithin sai d space,.free

from. contact with the member'T andwall 241 The part or section 21 ofthe famalgamat ing means or chamber 11 consists principally in anannular partition member 25- which ex,-.

tends into but is equidistantlyspaced from the lower and opposed sidewalls of the annular cup 22 and provides inner. and outer annularpassages 26 and 27 communicated at their lower ends by an annularpassage 28 formed between the bottom ofthe member 25 and bottom wall ofthe cup 22.

Discharge nipples 29 are formed at opposite points on the lower side ofthe-. cup22 of the chamber and communicate with the passage 28 Thesenipples are preferably ex: ternally screw 'threaded, as at 30-, and areprovided with reduced screw threaded outer ends 31 upon which aremounted internally" screw threaded caps 32 which arepr-Ovidedwitlrplugmembers 52f extending into'the nipples. a s

As shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1 of the drawings, there areprovideddischarge. tubes 33 which, when it is desired-.to drain f theamalgam from .the chamber 1-1, are

tended through openings 34'and 35 respec- .tivelyyformed in the housing2 and flared portion 8 of the tubular member 7.

,By inserting a suitable tool when these tubes are positioned as showninathe drawings, the caps 32, which are of lessdiameter the chamber.

. than the inside 'diameter'of the tubes, may be unscrewed or removedand the nipples and the amalgam will readily drain from The partitionmember 25 enlarged upon its upperedge providing an outwardly lat erallyextending annular portion 36 and a similar annularlaterallyextendingportion 37 extending in the opposite direction. The

. portion 37 surrounds an eye-bolt 38 turned "in the upper endof theshaftt andis formed in itsiupper face with an annular clownwardly andoutwardly inclined intake chain ber 39wvhich communicates the lower en-'la'rgedendi20 ofthe intake pipe 18 with the r v outer annular passage'27; This chamber 39 is divided at equidistantpoints by a number ofannular web portionsl O, the latter act-' ingto divide the chamber intopassages 41 a between the members 410.. It will thus be v seen that theore fed to the chamber 39 Wlllpassages 41 into the passage 27; Theenpass around the web portions 10 through the largement'37 upon itsunderside in expanding: laterally inwardly from the partition memberdefines an annular shoulder 42.

Extending upwardly and outwardly from v :the shoulder to a point on theouter annular face of the portion 36 are a series of passageways 43which communicate the pan 12 with the inner annular passage 26. These.pasthe lower, end of a sleeve 51. p gland 52is mounted' between thesleeve 51 and pipe 18 to provide a suitable stuffing box' sageways .43extend through the annular web portions 40, as shown in Fig. act thedrawings, and at their discharge ends may be communicated with nozzles14 which are secured by fastening elements 45 to the outer annular faceof the portion 36 and which extend nearly tangentially from said outerannular face so as to discharge into the pan l2. These nozzles 44 may beomitted if dey sired, the passageways serving as nozzles.

. The engaging faces of the parts 21 and 22, I

more specifically the engaging faces of the enlarged portion 37 and bossor hub portion 23, are stepped or provided with a seriesof offsetsdefining shoulders 46. v a

. Screws or other fastening elements 47 are outer wall ofthe cup 22tosecure the section of thechamber together.

The upper annular. face 48 of the enlarged portion 37 surrounds thelower end of the enlarged portion 20 of the pipe 18, and se-' curedupon-said face 48 by a fastening ele-- Inent 19 'is'an annular flange 50carried on A packing that will prevent' leakagel The enlarged portion 20of the sleeve 51. 1 It will be seen pipe 18 bears against the consistingof the parts 21 and 22 may be readily assembled or disassembled withoutrequiring the disassembling of the entire device and that it comprises aunit of simple and practical construction involving "the use ofcomparatively little material.

when the device is 'in operation and the shaft 4': rotates the chamber11' the mercury 'is thrown outwardly by 1 centrifugal force and'spreadsin an annular film over the outer 1 wall of the passage 27. In thisconnection it is noted that the outer wall'of the passage 27 said outerwall being virtually the inner face of the outer wall of the cup 22, isinclined downwardly and inwardly. This in; clination is provided inorder that thefilm of mercury will'be more evenly distributed."

The upper edge of the outer wall of'the cup 22 is enlarged, providing anannular'shoul f der 53 which extends over and is] spaced from theupper'edge of the inner wall 24 of the pan 12,. and thisenlargement.alsoprovides an inwardly extending annular shoulder'5 lwhich acts as an abutment to prevent wardly by centrifugal force.

that the amalgamator 11 I Normally the mercury lies in the annularpassage 28 at the'bottom of the cup, 22, but T p v the mercury frombeing thrown further up- I It is to be noted that the lower portion ofthe passage 27 extends inwardly and dow 'n-,

wardly at an angle of 45? more or less from the main portion of thepassage to the point i of its communication with the I passage 28.

This provides-for the retention of the nier- I V cury during operationof the amalgamator. It will thllS'bG seen'that when the machine isoperated at sufficient rate of rotation the,

niercuryfornis the outer'wall of the pas Sage 27'.

When the machine is in operation, as above described, and the ore is fedthrough the pipe'lS into the chamber 39 it will pass around the webs 10into the passages 41 and from thence downwardly into the 'pas-' sage 27.Since the chamber 11 is rapidly 1'15v I rotating the ore is forciblythrown by centrifugal action against the thin mercury film or wall andintimatelymixes with-it.

As the amalganiator maybe rotated at high speed there islittle-likelihood of the ore be; i it coming clogged and stopping up thepas sage 27 and theore inbeing forcibly thrown into intimate contactwith the .mercury causes anefl'ective and tion of the metals.

' The ore is preferably fed under pressure complete amalgama-r passage27through the passage 28 upfthef passage 26'and-out through thepassage-' ways-43, discharging through the nozzles 44: into the pan. Inthis connection it will 130 I to the" passage 27'and wiltpass, from saidbe noted that the rapid rotation of the nozzles 4:4: causes centrifugalaction upon the tailings issuing therefrom and in the passageways 43,thus providing for an effective discharge of the ore from theamalgamating chamber. The jamalgam may be drained from the chamber byscrewing the tubes 33 into the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1of the drawings and then removing the plugs 32. Upon the removal of theplugs 32 the amalgam will readily flow through the discharge nipples 29and discharge from the tubes 35 where it may be suitably collected.

The pan 12 for receiving the tailings is provided with an outlet openingand its bottom wall is inclined downwardly toward said opening so thatore thrown in the pan will readily pass out through opening 55.

From the foregoing it is clear that the centrifugal action of thetailings in the discharge end of the shell passage is suflicient toprevent clogging of though the force of the ore feed at'the feed end ofthe passage be insuflicient of itself to cause the ore to flow throughthe machine at a desirable rate of speed. The advantage of this is thatpressures inside 'of the shell may be minimized so as to minimizeleakage past the packing 52 and through the joints of the varioussections'of the shell, thus the centrifugal action of the hollowrotating column of ore is utilized to aid 1n moving the column of orethrough and in contact with a hollow body of mercury.

I claim:

1. A centrifugal amalgamator cornpris ing a sectional shell,one sectionbeing in the shape of an annular cup and the other section forming anannular partition spaced from the sides and bottom of the cup shapedsection to form a restricted annular passage,

the second named section having spaced webs and there being nozzleopenings in the webs communicating at their inner ends with the annularpassage and extending to the periphery of the second named section. 1

the passage even 2. ln a centrifugal amalgamator, thecom bination of ashell having an annular passage, means to rotate the shell, an inlet forthe passage at the upper end ofthe shell,

and nozzles at the peripheryof the shell for the upper end ofthepassage, said nozzles 7 being arranged to discharge in a directionopposite to the direction of rotation and the passage from the inlet tothe nozzle'outlets being restricted and normally closed except ing as tothe inlet and outlets andadapted to benormally filled with mercuryandpulp while operating.

and secured to the shaft, a feed pipe located above the shaft, a supportfor the feed pipe,

an annular pan surrounding the cup, a partition member mounted withinthe cup and spaced from the bottom and sides thereof providing uprightannular passages oommunicating w th one another at their lower ends, anenlargement formed onthe upper end of thepartition member andextendingover the web portion, said enlargement having an ore intakechamber in its upper side and being provided with passages extend.- ingfrom the ore intake chamber to a pointcommunicating with the upper sideof the outer annular passage, said enlargement being formed withpassages extending; upwardly from points-in communication with the upperside of the innerannular passage to the outer peripheral face of saidenlargementand adapted to discharge intothe pan,

and a charge of mercury which is distributed over the outer wall of theouter annular passage by centrifugal action, said feed pipe extendinginto the chamber.

Signed at Los An eles, California, this 11th day of July, 191

V SAMUEL G. MUSSEB. lVitnesses: g

CHAS. J. CHUNN, E. G. BLASDEL. I

- 60 3. A centrifugal amalgamatorQcompris-

